Bottle cap



Oct. 2, 1928. 1,686,356

A. WESTLAKE BOTTLE c'AP Filed Oct. 18, 1926 QM gvwewtoz w w WP PM Patented Oct. 2, 1928.

UNITED STATES ALBERT WESTLAKE,

or NEW YORK, N. Y.

BOTTLE CAP.

Application filed October 18, 1926. Serial No. 142,282.

This invention relates to fibrous caps or closures for bottles and other containers, which caps or closures are usually required to be proof against attack by acids, 011s, greases and einanations from the contents of the bottles or containers in transportation or use.

More particularly my invention relates to caps for milk bottles and more specifically to the fibrous cap for bottles and other con tainers patented by me on December 19, 1916 as No. 1,209,091. Yet the present invention may be usefully adopted in the manufacture of a great variety of other types of bottle ca s.

iks is well known, fibrous caps for milk bottles and many other containers are, usually and preferably, made by building up a suitable basic material by superimposing a number of separate layers or plies of paper or other fibrous material, previously saturated or coated with suitable adhesive and chemically useful substances with a view to the particular uses to which the caps are to be put. These superimposed sheets, strips, or layers of basic material are then by means of suitable rollers or other pressure-applying machinery, compressed to the desired thickness and cohesion. The basic material thus formed is usually and preferably stamped out by suitable dies into discs of a diameter adapted for the bottle or container with which it is intended to be used. The discs are large enough to overlap the rim of the bottle or other container and over this rim or lip the disc is bent and preferably ironed into a clasping fold as clearly shown in the above named patent.

This applying of caps to the bottle is generally accomplished by the aid of heat as well as pressure and, especially in the case of bottling milk, the material is left in disc form until it is fed to the machinery by which it becomes heated and applied to the bottle.

When, however, the fibrous caps are to be used like other stoppers or closures, that is in cases where the caps are to be used a number of times and not thrown away after the bottle is once opened (as is the custom with milk bottle closures) the fibrous caps may be brought into the desired shape apart from the bottle with which they are to be used. Such is the case where the contents of the bottle are not of the character to require protection against unauthorized removal and replacing of the cap.

All this has already been communicated to the public by my Patent No. 1,209,091 as above cited.

Experience has shown that when milk bottles capped with fibrous closures are transported, as frequently happens, in boxes or crates which are filled with broken ice surrounding the bottles and likely to be thrown or pressed by the jarring of transportation, against the fiat surface of the cap which spans the mouth of the bottle the pressure of agged lumps of ice may weaken or crank the material of the cap and thus impair the hermetic character of the seal.

To overcome this disadvantage is the object of the present invention which consists broadly of a bottle cap composed of fibrous material arranged in a plurality of plies adhering together in intimate union and a central strip of stiffening material molded therein and re-inforcing the same.

The preferred material of which this central strip is made varies with the resistance demanded by the character and duration of the transportation shocks to which the bottles may be subjected in transit: For rough handling in transportation the central strip should be of aluminum or other pliable but not brittle metal. Where the shocks to be resisted are not great enough to require a metal strip a fibrous strip coated 0r saturated (preferably) with the same chemicals which are used on the individual fibrous layers may be employed instead of metal.

It will be understood that any materials which can be made sufiiciently thin, pliable and impervious to concentrated pressure may be used for the central strip, having a zone of its fibrous material within the mouth of the bottle, adapted, when subjected to pressure, to be depressed lower than the top surface of the bottle rim, and anchored on the summit of the bottle-neck rim and which, if desired, may be a wide or narrow band, or string, of suitable fibrous or pliable nature.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a side elevation of my improved cap as applied to theneck of a milk bottle.

Figure 2 is a top plan; the reinforcing central strip being shown in dotted line.

Figure 3 is a vertical section on line 3-3 of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a cross section on line 44 of Figure 2.

In this drawing the cap is shown as composed of five superimposed layers of fibrous material (1 a; and the central strip 1) is shown so located that three of the fibrous layers are above the central strip and two below. But it is obvious that the location of the strip vertically in the pile of layers is not essential, the more important feature being that the reinforcing strip should be of sullicient width to cover the horizontal center of the cap when on the bottle and long enough to form part of the fringed or ribbed folding apron 0 as shown in Figure 1.

The uses and advantages of this improved bottle cap will, I think, be understood without further explanation.

I claim:

A bottle cap composed of fibrous material and having a zone within the mouth of'the bottle, adapted, when subjected to pressure, to be depressed lower than the top surface of the bottle rim and provided with a sustain ing strip crossing said bottle mouth and anchored upon the summit of the bottle neck rim, said sustaining strip being located below the top surface of the cap, whereby said cap is ada ted to resist the contact of obj ects which inig ll, tend ,to penetrate the same.

ALBERT WESTLAKE. 

